The Peripheral

There’s tons of pseudo-scientific cyberpunk gobbledygook, of course, but Smith keeps things moving and pretense falls to the wayside. ... “The Peripheral” is dead center fun.

The Peripheral is a cut above everyday sci-fi with cool futuristic effects, but it starts meandering after a stellar pilot.

Despite the changes made to the original, the story remains, if not convoluted, at least one with an enormous number of interconnected and moving parts. And a comparable number of provocative thrills.

There are big ideas under the surface that The Peripheral can’t explore because of a greater investment in twisty plot, garbled jargon and complicated world-building. Still, there’s something to be said for a version of Westworld that is simpler and therefore less ambitious and less reliably frustrating.

Bright spots in “The Peripheral” include excellent performances by Moretz and Eli Goree as Conner Penske. ... Unfortunately, these strengths, much like “Westworld’s,” are too often lost in a commitment to mysteries that crowds out coherence, mistaking the challenge of deciphering what’s happening for the joys of solving the puzzle of why.

The series, based on a novel by cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson, boasts competently directed action that rubs up uneasily against deeply indulgent running times; no matter how good the chase scenes, we need a break as individual installments plod past the hour mark. This insistence on keeping audiences on the hook doesn’t consistently grant insight; despite how much time we spend with her, and despite Moretz’s best efforts, Flynne is little more than an archetype.

Six hours in, the stakes and worlds of “The Peripheral” have barely been defined more than they were during the premiere because this is a program that only the people who wrote it could love. Showrunner Scott B. Smith, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy exploded the world of Gibson’s novel but never bothered to put the pieces back together into something interesting.

Great series. Some might fight it confusing whereas I found it as a gripping and intriguing watch

"The Peripheral" (S01, 8 eps, 1hr, Amzn) is Chloe's breakout role. She stars as a no-nonsense southern gal with the looks the director and DP won't let you forget, but with the action capacity to layout a room full of hostiles despite her 5.4-ft, 110-lb frame. Look, this is a good series, some of the fight-action is clearly over the top but the story, the tech, and the supporting cast of guys is good. Yes, the women are clearly the leads in this with Flynne (Chloe) as our main protag, her best friend Billy Ann who can shoot, Aelita West the one that gets them all in trouble to begin with and Cherise who's manipulating events from the future, yes the future. The other guys in this are supporting so in 2022 it's a woman's world and guys are lucky to have a token, demeaning role. But like I said, the story is good, it's got a good scifi time travel element that'll make you wonder. And the final scene of the finale is wacked enough to make you want a S02 now instead of a year or two, if it's even renewed, because that's the fkt up state of streaming tv we're in now, it's more likely your favorite shows are cancelled than renewed and you get to wait 12-24 months to see if you get another paltry 8eps.

Starts out well enough, but the sci-fi world is PRETENTIOUS and becomes impossible to follow while the real world is fake FOLKSY enough to make you sick. Add in the fact that average people use the F-word like a steady stream during normal conversation and the whole thing starts to become pretty unbearable as the show progresses. The sci-fi is pretty good, but it's just too big of a headache to try and follow. Not that it's too smart for the audience, but it tries too hard to appear smart.

This show is basically all the cut scenes and no action. No fun. All exposition, very in-your-face. It couldn't get any more boring seriously.

I endured the first episode and I don't think I have the strength for another. There's some plot here that might be worth it if you have a lot of patience, but I couldn't be bothered... And plenty of things just don't work. Also - the characters aren't interesting in the slightest. The main character starts off like this perfect, flawless girl-boss we've seen so many times already (oh, and she apparently kicks ass in video games but people dismiss her because she's a girl, how novel a concept!). Then there's some local gang of incompetent brutes / hoodlums with a Big Boss who's comically evil... And obviously it's a series from 2022, so the White Knight needs to be a black guy... tho I have to give props to Amazon for managing to check the "disabled" tick box in a somewhat interesting way. 2 points for the somewhat interesting visuals here or there.